From automotive technology parking lock arrangements for automatic vehicle transmissions are well known. The known parking lock arrangements usually comprise a parking lock gear with teeth. An actuated locking pawl can be engaged in these teeth, when desired, in order to lock the parking lock gear, which is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to an output shaft of a transmission. This ensures that when the vehicle transmission is in a parking position, the vehicle cannot be moved.
To actuate the locking pawl, a locking cone system is customarily used in which a locking cone can be displaced on a connecting element against the force of a spring device. To engage the parking lock, a driver of the vehicle moves a selector lever to the parking position, where the connecting element is moved by way of a selector shaft and a slotted disc connected in a rotationally fixed manner to the latter. The movement of the selector lever thus axially displaces the connecting element, such that the locking cone, together with the connecting element, is pushed under the locking pawl in order to actuate the locking pawl. In this way, the locking pawl can engage the teeth of the parking lock gear and lock the parking lock gear and the output shaft of the transmission, which is connected in a rotationally fixed manner thereto.
In the described arrangement, the load on the parking lock arrangement is proportional to the diameter of the parking lock gear in which the locking pawl engages. Since the parking lock arrangement is intended for use with a variety of vehicles, each with different weight and drivetrain transmission ratios, the known parking lock arrangement makes it necessary to carry out elaborate and costly adaptation of the diameter of the parking lock gear and the respective transmission to the load being applied in each case.
Thus, the purpose of the present invention is to propose a parking lock gear for a parking lock arrangement of the general type described at the start, which can be universally used with different types of vehicle and transmission sizes without the need for elaborate adaptations to the transmission in each case.